Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany Found Out About Her Golden Globe Nomination on Twitter

Following the Emmy snub heard round the Twitterverse, Orphan Black, the brilliant clone drama airing on BBC America, has finally received awards recognition from a mainstream voting body with star Tatiana Maslany’s best-actress Golden Globe nomination this morning. This is not just a victory for the cult-favorite Canadian American series but for the sci-fi genre at large, which is normally left out of major awards proceedings.

Shortly after arriving at Orphan Black’s Toronto set this morning, the 28-year-old Canadian actress, still shocked from the news, rang VF.com to chat. “I’m just totally blown away,” Maslany said about the nomination. “And glad to be on set, which is a nice place to be.”

Asked who broke the news of her nomination to her, Maslany revealed that it wasn’t one person in particular—it was Twitter. “I got a Tweet. My phone just started blowing up with Tweets. And then a few of my friends texted me.” Despite the honor, the actress revealed that she is not getting any special treatment on set. “Yeah, I don’t have to work now,” Maslany joked. “They’re going to have a double do my part.” (Surely this is one situation where having a clone—the central plot toOrphan Black—might be beneficial!) “No, we are knee deep in work. We are just finishing up episode six and I have a read-through at lunch so it’s a good day. But I’m so happy I get to be here with the crew and cast today. This is the only place I’d want to be. I’ll probably eat a lot off the craft table.”

She has not yet figured out how she will celebrate off set. She’ll perhaps “do something fun this weekend, but I’m pretty pooped from work now so I’ll keep it low key.” Of the second season of Orphan Black, which she is currently filming, Maslany teased, “It’s high octane. There’s a lot of character development, a lot of stillness, a lot of place for the characters to grow and deepen. The worlds of each of the clones are expanding and we get to learn about the people in each of the clone’s worlds. The show is expanding way out of the safety zone in exciting risky new territory. It’s not a part of the Orphan Blackworld we’ve seen so far.”

While she would not indulge us in any season-two specifics—other than that she has the capacity to assume the role of more clones, wink, wink—she revealed that she is especially enjoying playing Rachel during the show’s second iteration. (The recently discovered “proclone,” viewers will remember from the end of the first season, was raised by neolutionists with the knowledge that she is a clone.) “I’m really having fun with her,” the actress said. “She’s got an enormous eternal life that we don’t get to see. She’s sort of a hard nut to crack and a big challenge for me as an actor and scary and exciting. The writers are having a lot of fun with her and there is a lot of cool stuff that has to do with her.”

For those who have not yet seen the critically acclaimed series, it stars Maslany in upwards of six different roles, all requiring different accents and impressively different personalities. While attempting to right her life for her young daughter in the show’s first season, Maslany’s chracter Sarah Manning stumbles upon six eerily recognizable women who turn out to be her clones. In their attempt to get to the bottom of the experiment which created them, some of the clones cooperate with each other, at times impersonating each other in high-stakes circumstances. (At times, the British clone will be impersonating the uptight American soccer mom clone, and vice versa.) Thanks to makeup, wigs, and most importantly, Maslany’s deft acting ability, she manages to portray each different character with compelling clarity and impressive skill.

Her performance (and the series in general) flies so under-the-radar though that when Maslany was overlooked by the Emmy voting body this summer—and her passionate fan base responded in a Twitter uproar so great that both she and Orphan Black were soon trending— we reasoned that the Emmy snub may have been the best publicity the show had ever received. While Maslany earned an award this year from the Television Critics Association, the Golden Globe nod is her first major nomination. The most recent sci-fi star to earn a nomination in this category, by our recollection, is Gillian Anderson, who was nominated for four Golden Globes for The X-Files (and even won one). Unlike Maslany though, she benefited from a network platform. Orphan Blackairs in the U.S. on the more rural cable destination of BBC America.

Maslany shares the acting category with Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife), Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black), Kerry Washington (Scandal), and Robin Wright (House of Cards). (Better luck next year Claire Danes.) Tune into the award show, co-hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, on January 12th to see how Maslany fares.

For a small glimpse of Maslany’s work, take a look at the below clip from the Orphan Black pilot, during which her character transforms herself, for the first time, to assume the identity of one of her clones.

Related:Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany on Growing Up in Rural Canada and Playing an Intense Soccer Mom